While phones, televisions and computers may have once been used for very distinct, separate activities, they're increasingly playing a role in how people carry out a variety of daily tasks. Additionally, they're being used more often at the same time. As consumers watch a greater amount of content online via different devices, video ads online and mobile video ads will grow more important for brands carrying out effective multichannel marketing strategies.

According to new findings from Gartner, half of device screen time is spent accessing entertainment, with people primarily playing video games, reading books, listening to radio, podcasts or music and watching video content. The remaining screen time is used for communication, which represents 26 percent of device use, production activities, 15 percent, and researching information, 9 percent. Gartner based these results on a survey of 726 tablet owners in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The average participant was found to spend an average four hours per day using a tablet, smartphone or computer.

"Of the different types of activity, people spend by far the most time on entertainment, and people often use several devices at once, so it seems we are turning into a society of multitasking, multiscreen users," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.

The survey noted Apple and Samsung tablet owners were more likely than other tablet users to spend a greater amount of time accessing entertainment on their devices. Apple and Samsung users were found to engage in tablet entertainment an average 30 times longer than other survey participants. Apple owners made up 80 percent of the heaviest users, consumers who utilize their tablets for entertainment at least 10 times a day.

Content streaming on tablets is becoming a mainstream pastime around the world. As such, mobile video advertising is likely to continue seeing growing interest from brands and publishers.